Punk Goes Pop 2...They Should've Just Stopped At The First Album.

One word, horrible.

When songs are top charted, they're over-played to begin with. If bands who shouldn't be singing pop songs in the first place cover these hits, it can either be a catastrophe or a masterpiece. Fearless Records proves their fearlessness with the release of Punk Goes Pop Volume 2, this Tuesday.

Silverstein's "Apologize" cover was about the only decent track on the CD. The desperateness of the bands to create something new from the popular songs isn't working. Although separately the bands are good, the cd itself is not. The songs aren't originally redone and aren't good. A screamo version of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around..." shouldn't have even been thought of.

Fearless Records has no plans for a third CD so far, but there are always possiblities for a Pop Goes Punk 3 in the future.


Fearless Records Main Website
Preview the album

Kiss A Girl is a Major Hit

"Kiss A Girl,"Keith Urban's new single is a typical country song: about love, feelings and that ever popular first kiss. The song is catchy and can keep any country music fan's attention.

It is the second song released from his newest album, Defying Gravity (the first being Sweet Thing), which is due out March 31, 2009. Urban is excited about the new album, and hopes his fans are too. "Defying Gravity comes from the lyrics of a song on the album, and it just struck me at the time as a phrase that really defined the joyous, optimistic and uplifting spirit that seemed to show itself while making the album."

Urban plans on going on tour (The Escape Together world tour), with accompanists Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Dierks Bentley, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, and the Zac Brown Band. Their tour includes almost 60 stops, and starts on May 7th this year.


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"Sugar" is Not So Sweet

Okay what is up with Flo Rida remaking all of these songs for the basis of his new singles?

The first release, Right Round, quite obviously features a chorus with the same music from the original "Right Round" by Dead or Alive, and single, "Sugar" (supposed to be released next week) starts out with Wynter singing an intro almost identical to "I'm Blue" by Eiffel 65 (anyone at Carmel should know exactly how that goes..oh, how our school needs new music during passing periods).

Flo Rida can keep an audience listening to his singles, which is probably his strategy with the revival of all the new songs, but TWO songs from his new album to be remakes? That's just lacking originality. The lyrics aren't exactly heartfelt either. Is this really all Flo Rida and his producers can come up with?

His new album, R.O.O.T.S. (Routes of Overcoming the Struggle) is available for pre-order now, and is expected to be available for purchase on April 7 of this year.


For a sneak peak listen of "Sugar", click here
For more information, click here
To pre-order Flo Rida's new album, R.O.O.T.S., click here

Incredibad Doing Incredigood

The Lonely Island, a band that many people recognize as members of the Saturday Night Live cast, released their debut album, Incredibad, less than a month ago. This comedic album has a four and a half star rating out of five and keeps the audiences laughing through every track.

Along with the funny lyrics, the album features popular artists like Justin Timberlake and T-Pain, and actress Natalie Portman, attracting more fans and downloads.

Although concerts aren't likely, even though there have been shows in the past, but the band plans on continuing their hit tracks and performing them on SNL (they also have a contest out to win two tickets to SNL, click here for more).

More information about the album here

Sometimes New Isn't Always So Improved

When anyone says Christina Aguilera, "Genie in a Bottle" is the first song that comes to mind. Just like any hit song, it plays for a while on the radio and eventually gets washed out by the other new music that other artists bring to the entertainment table.

The classics of rock almost always eventually have covers or remakes of their songs by other artists years after its first release, Aguilera followed her own path, remaking "Genie in a Bottle" on her newest album.

The original is 100 time better. The techno and upbeat sounds of "Genie 2.0" is just not good. The idea of having a remake of one of her best hits is creative, but the music needed more work. It sounded like a bad club remix that no one would end up dancing to in the first place.

Her CD is out for purchase now, but hearing this as the first track sort of ruined my want to listen to or buy it.


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Even Though I Found "A Day Late" A Few Years Late, It Still Remains A Good Song.

It always makes me so happy to know that there are still artists in the music buisness who write lyrics about either what you can't put to words or about something other than sexuality or drugs and alcohol.

Although it is an older song, Anberlin's "A Day Late" was featured on iTunes. Being the music lover I am, my mouse lead me to the song for a double click and 30 second preview. I immediately loved the song. The happy beat and vocals captured my attention first, so i purchased the song to listen to it in its entirety.

Although the music did catch my attention, the lyrics did even more. The song talks about the relationship between two people who secretly loved eachother but said nothing about it while they had the strong feelings they did. After a while, they both exposed their former love, but they also both had significant others, and the feelings had to stop. Many people go through situations like this, and the fact that Amberlin puts it into a song makes it an easy listen and something anyone can listen to.

The band's most recent album, New Surrender, was released in late September of 2008, and they continue on their tour until August of this year.


For:
- tour dates
- lyrics to "A Day Late"
- Anberlin's Myspace

New Green Day Album Expected to Be Released This May

After five years since their latest album, American Idiot, Green Day's leading vocalist, Billy-Joe Armstrong released that a new album is soon to come, titled 21st Century Breakdown.

Although the record won't be available for purchase until May of this year and Green Day isn't planning to go back on tour til after it is released, Rolling Stone's David Frick says “The disc loosely follows a young couple, Christian and Gloria, through the mess and promise of the century so far." The record is split into three parts, “Heroes and Cons,” “Charlatans and Saints” and “Horseshoes and Handgrenades", to help create a story through the music they produced.

There are no singles off of the CD in circulation yet, but during a sneak peak at the album, Rolling Stone reports that these sixteen tracks are "defiant, but also defiantly hopeful, referencing the unsettled political climate as well as more personal and generational turmoils."(for the entire article, click here).

American Idiot, along with many of the other albums from Green Day were ambitious, opinionated, platinum, and award winning. All hopes are that 21st Century Breakdown follows this trend and keeps GD new and fresh in the music world.


More information about the new CD here